Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-04
HOLDING THE ROPE.
A Startling Instance Of the Slender
Tenure Upon Which Great Results
0ftentimes Hangs,
Small Circumstances With Mighty Re.
suIts-No Insigniflcances to Be
Found in Our Lives.
rho Plainest MANS Life is an Island Be
tween Two Eternities, Eternity Past
and Eternity to Come.
.nnciaI to the Gazette.

Many hundreds of Brooklyn Tabernacle
people and their friends have made pill
grimage to this place. 1t is one point in
an excursion of SIX days, taking in New
port, Nantucket, and this island. The
Rev. T. Dewitt Tslmage, ID, preached
mere this morning in the great camp
meeting Tabernacle. Thousands of peo-
PIE were present from all parts of New
England, The music was conducted by
band.
DR.. TsImage's text was Through q
window in basket was l let down by the
wall iii. Cor. VI. :33. He said:
Sermons on Paul in jail, Paul on Mars
Hin, Paul in the shipwreck, Paul before
the Ssnhedrim, Paul before Felix are
plentiful, but in my text we have Paul in
basket
Damascus is 8 city CT white and glist-
ening architecture sometimes called "the
eve of the East" sometimes called ga
pearl surrounded by emersIds," at one
time distinguished for swords Of the best
material called Damascus blades, and up
1glstery OF richest fabric called dGmasks.
a hOrsemsn by the name of Saul riding
toward this city he'd been thrown from
me saddle. The horse had dropped IN
der g flash from the sky, which at the
same time was so bright it blinded the
rider for many days, and, I think, so per
msnently injured his eyesight that this
defect of vision became the thorn in the
flesh he afterwards speaks Of. He start
ed for Damascus TO butcher Christians,
put after that hard fell from his horse ne
was changed man and pTesCned Christ
in Damascus till the city was shaken to
rs foundation.
The Mayor gives authority for his ar
rest, and the popular cry IS: "kill him
XIII MINI" The city is surrounded by g
afal wall, and the gqres are watched by
The police lest the CiciIiau preacher
escape Many of the houses &Te built on
--e wall, and their balconies projected
clear over and lowered above the garden
outside Il was customary to lower
baskets out Of the balconies and pull up
fruits and flowers from the gardens To
this day visitors TO the monastery Of
Mount Sinai are lifted snd let down il
baskets. Detectives prOwle6 around
from house TO house looking for Paul,
cut his friends hid nim,n now in one place,
now IN another. He is no coward, as
fifty incidents IN his life demonstrate
But be feels that his work is not done
yet, and so he evGdes assassination. "Is
thst preacher here;n the fORming mob
shout at one house door. as that fanatic
lere,'' the police shout at another house
door Sometimes on the street incognito
la passes through q crowd Of ClenChed
lists and sometimes ne seCretes himself
on the house-t0D, At last the jnfuriate
u51u.sce get on
SURE TRACK OF HIM.
They lsye positive evidence that he is in
The house Of one II the Christians, the
.a.c0uy OF whose home reaches over the
Wal. 'Here ne is, Here he is" The
v0Cife-stiOu ard blssplemy and bowling
Of the pursuCrs are a. the front door
They reak ia. "Fetch out that Gospel
iZer, and lot us hang his hesd on the city
gate Where IS hep The emergency
was terrible. PrOyideutially there was
good stout basket in the house. Paul's
friends fasteu rgpe 70 the basket. Paul
steps ntO It, The basket is lifted to the
edge If the balcony on the wall, and then
white Paul holds on 10 the end Of the
rope with both hands, his friends lower
away. carefully and cautiously, slowly
..t-uTc.v, further down and further down,
Unit. tle basket strikes the earth end the
-q1S-.e steps out and afOot and alone
starts ON that famous missionary tour, the
story Of which mas GstJnishei earth and
heaven. Appropriate entry IN P2ups
t.srv of travels: Through q window,
IL basket, was l let down by the wall"
OBSERVE, first, on what q slender zen
IRE CREST results hang. The ropemakeT
who twisted that cord fastened TO that
covering basket never knew how much
would depend upon the strength of it.
How if il had been broken and the apos-
tie's lie dashed out? Whist would have
become of the Christian church? All that
magnificent missionary work in Pam
Dhilia, CsppadOCia, Galatia, Macedonia
would never have been accomplished
AL his writings that make up so indis-
peusable and enchsnting.a part of the New
Testament would never have been writ
ten. The story Of the resurrection would
never have been told so glori-
Ously as Re told it. That
example OF heroic and triumphant endur-
ance at Philippi, in the Mediterranean
EurOClydOn, under tagellatiOn, and at his
beheading would not have kindled the
courage of ten thousand marlvrdoms.
But thst rope holding that basket, how
much depended on 1t. So, sgain and
again, great results have hung on what
seemed
SLENDER CIRCUMSTANCES.
Did ever saip, Of many thousand tons,
eros ing the sea have such an important
passenger as had once g boat of leaves,
from taffrall to stern only three or four
feet, the vessel made waterproof 10y
coat Of bltumen, and Hosting on the Nile
with the infant law-giver OF the Jews on
board. What if some crocodile should
crunch it? What if some of the
cattle wading in for drink should sink
il. Vessels Of var sometimes carry
iorty guns looking through the portfolios,
ready TO open battle. But that tiny craft
on the Nile seems to be armed with all
the guns Of thunder that bombaTded
Sinai at the law-giviRg On how fragile
craft sailed how much Of historical i'm
p0Ttdnce.
The parsonage ct EpwoIth. England, is
OF ire in the night, and the father
rushed through the hallway for the res
cue of his children. Seven children are
out and safe on the ground, but one re-
mains in the consuming building. That
one wakes, and finding his bed on ire
and the building crumbIing, comes to the
window, and two peasants make a ladder
of their bO6ips one peasant StandinO on